I used to think that making jam was a quick and painless task. Although peeling and/or cutting up apples or strawberries can take some time, the jam-making process is generally pretty easy: just boil your fruit with some sugar and maybe a packet of pectin and then can. And, if you're feeling especially lazy, you can avoid sterilizing jars and boiling by simply plunking your cooled preserves into baggies to freeze, which is what I do with my tomatoes.

Well, all thoughts about quick and easy preserving changed for me this week. Making meyer lemon marmalade, apricot and blackberry jam, and apple butter may be fairly simple projects, but, as I found out, cooking up a batch of raspberry jam can be time consuming and a bit maddening. My adventure began with a bumper crop of sweet red raspberries in my backyard.

The little thornless raspberry plant I purchased four years ago has turned into 15 feet of lush vines laden with berries. There were too many to just eat out of hand (although trust me, we did try). So, with literally a bucket or more of ripe raspberries about to go bad, I decided to try my hand at making raspberry jam. Little did I know my jam adventure would take two days, two recipes, and two trips to the store.

Finally I found black raspberry jelly recipe and now I am able to do that on my own.